Re: Young Allosaur feathers?

["Jordan Mallon" <j_mallon@hotmail.com>]

> From: "Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>

> After all, _Sinosauropteryx_ has a feathery integument; but its kissing 
> cousin _Compsognathus_ does not.  In _Compsognathus_, the absence of 
> feathers (especially in a specimen preserved in the same depositional 
> environment as _Archaeopteryx_) is likely due to secondary loss.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but so far as I know, we have no evidence for any 
form of integument in _Coelophysis_ at all.  Not feathers.  Not scales.  So 
unless we are able to prove (or "support the hypothesis," as my lab 
coordinators would have me say) that _Coelophysis_ had scales, there's no 
reason to believe that it couldn't have feathers.

Jordan Mallon

Undergraduate Student, Carleton University
Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoecology

Website: http://www.geocities.com/paleoportfolio/
AIM: jslice mallon

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail